New leader's got a lot of bottle

The ex-lord mayor and former milkman now in charge of Coventry City Council has been variously called Johnny Rotten after the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the Binley Barnstormer and even the Dead Sheep.

The ex-lord mayor and former milkman now in charge of Coventry City Council has been variously called Johnny Rotten after the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the Binley Barnstormer and even the Dead Sheep.

Cllr John Mutton (Lab, Binley and Willenhall), new leader of the Labour group which now has only 24 of the council's 54 seats, has a reputation as a tough bruiser prone to controversy in his public and private careers.

A left-winger and ex-Militant sympathiser, he called in the past for Neil Kinnock to be sacked as Labour leader and he was also taken to court for refusing to pay the poll tax in full, sending instead what he thought was due.

As lord mayor he refused to host a civic reception for Nobel peace prize winner, former South African president, F W de Klerk when he visited Coventry, and he also called for cannabis to be legalised before it was such a popular cause.

He also famously was led into saying "bring on the dancing girls" when the city council's licensing committee once decided to crack down on lap-dancing clubs.

More recently, he has earned respect for drawing up council budgets as the deputy to outgoing Labour leader Cllr Nick Nolan for the past three years. He is said to have a good grasp of detail and an appetite for hard work.

There are admirers of his straight-talking, man-of-the-people style, but many believe it is not the ideal quality for a leader trying to keep a squabbling minority group running the council in the run-up to crunch elections in 2004.

The question on many lips after the mayor-making ceremony in Coventry Cathedral was: "Will John Mutton keep his temper for the next 12 months?"

Early signs are not promising. He didn't reply when Tory deputy leader Cllr Tony O'Neill launched an unexpected personal attack during the council's annual meeting, making snide remarks about his milk-man's past.

Two days later, however, he responded, in the solemn setting of Coventry Cathedral, with hundreds of schoolchildren present, by saying the new Conservative deputy Lord Mayor Cllr John Gazey made "painfully-long speeches".

Some of his own councillors felt it was out of order, but Cllr Mutton thinks he was restrained. He laughs off fears that he will blow a gaffe and says he does not intend to "descend to the level" of his Tory opponents.

All eyes will now be on the ex-Militant sympathiser, who was the chairman of Coventry South East constituency party when Dave Nellist was its Labour MP, to see in what direction he will steer his group.

He left Militant before the group split from the Labour party because he felt it was becoming Stalinist in its organisation and more of a dictatorship than a democratic organisation.

He has difficult tasks ahead. Coventry City Council was named among the worst in Britain in the first town hall league tables and the government still reserves the right to send in outsiders to run it if necessary.

His first priority is the council's improvement plan and he has also pledged to stick to his party's five local manifesto commitments, which include nursery places for all three-year-olds and more flowers in the city.

He certainly has a colourful past. As a promising young footballer he became a Sky Blues "babe" but never made the first team. He left after a "personality clash" with chairman Jimmy Hill.

He was then sacked as a council dustman after head-butting his foreman in 1983. Ironically, if this had not happened, as a council worker he would have been banned by law from standing as a councillor.

He won the Binley and Willenhall nomination in 1984, ousting then-council leader Peter Lister, earning him the nickname the Binley barnstormer when he won the seat.

His initial months set the tone. During the campaign he disagreed with "almost everything" in Labour's manifesto, claiming it was not hard enough on the Tories. Within months of election he was expelled from the Labour group for nearly two years for refusing to vote for an 11 per cent rise in council house rents.

Years later, when he was housing committee chairman, he joined the mass protest against the poll tax, refusing to pay his &#xA3;1,600 bill and sending instead a cheque for &#xA3;468 - the previous year's rates plus inflation.

City magistrates imposed a liability order to deduct the balance from his wages as a milkman for the Coop. Cllr Mutton said it was a personal decision and did not actively campaign for others to do the same.

He later lost his milkman's job for having an unauthorised passenger on his float, and used a cash settle-ment to set up his own milk round.

The self-styled working-class socialist has long been passionate about the rights of children and young people. He and his wife Mal, who also stood as a Labour candidate in the May election, were foster parents for many years.

As lord mayor he took a group of young city athletes to the International Children's Games in 1997 and has organised similar trips ever since.

He's an avid Sky Blues supporter and when not busy at the Council House or watching his team, he has a less nerve-wracking hobby - he switches off his mobile phone and goes fishing.